Hermaphrodite Jacques Louis David (French, Paris 1748–1825 Brussels)

This sketch demonstrates both foreshortening and a twist in the body as it lies in quite an uncomfortable looking position on cushions

Accelerated perspective

One of the most famous pictures in which accelerated perspective is used to “hide” the image of the skull in the foreground( -a representative of the fragility of life) is the “Ambassadors” by Holbien:

Accelerated perspective can be produced by looking steeply down on the subject.

My drawings of essential shapes: all done in ten minutes or less

Views of Paul reading twisted in easy chair Pen and Ink

Paul reading Ink and pen

-I like the image by Degas (below) in very fine ? pencil in which the dancer’s skirt is hinted at and the block shading underlying the hatching is of very light pressure (although there are some areas of darker line around neck onto shoulder and depicting the waist and lesser intense but harder line around the arms and leg –I wonder how long he took in drawing this image?

In this drawing a fine and determined line in red chalk outlines areas of very soft and fine hatching across the back and shaded areas of limbs –these hatches appear to be overlaid with blocks of soft shades (possibly chalk rubbed in with finger or instrument).

I would like to spend longer on the life drawing in an attempt to softly represent the shade with a finer medium, although it may be my clumsy hands rather than the time factor or medium. (clumsy= Lacking physical coordination, skill, or grace; awkward.ref:http://www.thefreedictionary.com/clumsy)

Perhaps I should look at artists who have a more sculptural view of the model-perhaps their drawings are less perfect and more “clumsy” I picked some images by Lucien Freud -his models are not perfections of human figures and he draws much more forcibly, heavier and darker -although looking closely at the image there is a lot of fine hatching and possibly block shading on heavier paper. This model hits the paper with force. I would call Freud’s picture clumsy because of subject matter not because of dexterity.